Cui, H.; Xiao, W.; Zhou, Y.; Hou, B; Lu, F., and Pei, M., 2019. Spatial and temporal variations in vegetation cover and responses to climatic variables in the Daqing River Basin, North China. In: Guido-Aldana, P.A. and Mulahasan, S. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources and Exploration. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 93, pp. 450–459. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

The establishment of Xiong'an New Area in Hebei Province has gained immense attention from the whole scientific community. The Daqing River Basin (DRB), where the New Area is located, has become a new focus of hydrological scientists. The vegetation cover plays a key role in hydrological and biogeochemical cycles, serving as a reference to understand the ecological environment and water circulation status of the watershed. To analyse the current situation of climate and vegetation changes in the DRB, kriging interpolation, moving average, trend analysis of Theil–Sen median, and Mann-Kendall statistical test were used based on ground-based observation data and Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data. The annual mean values of NDVI showed a significant upward trend from 2000 to 2015. The fluctuations in seasonal NDVI values followed this trend correspondingly to various extents. The variations in NDVI value positively correlated with those in temperature, both on the annual scale and during summer seasons (P ≤ 0.05). A large improvement in the vegetation cover of DRB was observed (54.21% of the areas), mainly distributed in the northeast of Mountainous Areas of Daqing River Basin and West Plain of Baiyangdian Lake. The findings might be helpful to understand the water and energy flux cycling in the changing environment of this region, providing guiding information on river basin management and the planning and construction of New Area.